Can Prophets use Harsh words, Curse or Swear?
Introduction
A common crocodile tear allegation made against The Promised Messiah AS is that he used harsh language as a last resort on vile and totally unrepentant opponents of Islam and abusers of the Prophet ﷺ. Anyone who fails to understand this is a jahil or a zindeeq. The Quran highlights the principle of the Promised Messiah (AS) followed by saying:
Allah loveth not the utterance of harsh speech save by one who hath been wronged. Allah is ever Hearer, Knower
[Quran 4:148]
Examples in Hadith
Prophet ﷺ used harsh language in a private meeting
He had a private meeting with them and hurled malediction upon them and cursed them and sent them out.
[Sahih Muslim 2600b]
Prophet ﷺ sent curse upon entire tribes
O Allah, hurl curse upon the tribe of Lihyan and Ri’l aid Dhakwan and Usayya for they disobeyed Allah and His Messenger.
[Sahih Muslim 2517, 675a, 679a, 679b]
[Sunan an-Nasa’i 1077]
Prophet ﷺ called Khawarij dogs
The Khawarij are the dogs of Hell.
[Sunan Ibn Majah 173]
Prophet ﷺ said some of his Ummah will be Pigs and Apes
Some people from this nation of mine will spend the night eating, drinking, and partying, but by the morning they will have transformed into apes and swine
[al-Mu’jam al-Ṣaghīr lil-Ṭabarānī 168]
There will be among my community people who will make lawful (the use of) khazz and silk. Some of them will be transformed into apes and swine.
[Sunan Abi Dawud 4039]
Prophet ﷺ called certain Jews brethren of Pigs and Apes
You brethren of Monkeys and Pigs (to the treacherous Banu Qurayzah)
[Ma’mar ibn Rashid’s Kitāb al-Maghāzī (ARB/ENG), p. 87]
Examples in Quran
Certain people called Dogs
And had We willed We could have raised him by their means, but he clung to the earth and followed his own lust. Therefor his likeness is as the likeness of a dog: if thou attackest him he panteth with his tongue out, and if thou leavest him he panteth with his tongue out. Such is the likeness of the people who deny Our revelations. Narrate unto them the history (of the men of old), that haply they may take thought
[Quran 7:176]
Certain people called Donkeys
The likeness of those who are entrusted with the Law of Moses, yet apply it not, is as the likeness of the ass carrying books. Wretched is the likeness of folk who deny the revelations of Allah. And Allah guideth not wrongdoing folk
[Quran 62:5]
Certain people called Apes
So when they took pride in that which they had been forbidden, We said unto them: Be ye apes despised and loathed
[Quran 7:166]
Certain people called Pigs & Apes
Shall I tell thee of a worse (case) than theirs for retribution with Allah? (Worse is the case of him) whom Allah hath cursed, him on whom His wrath hath fallen and of whose sort Allah hath turned some to apes and swine, and who serveth idols. Such are in worse plight and further astray from the plain road
[Quran 5:60]
Certain people called Illegitimate Children
And do not obey the despicable, vain oath-taker, slanderer, gossip-monger, withholder of good, transgressor, evildoer, brute, and—on top of all that—an illegitimate child.
[Quran 68:10-13]